eudaemonism

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A system of ethics that evaluates actions in terms of their capacity to produce happiness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A philosophical notion, or system of ethics, which measures happiness in relation to morality. (Not to be confused with utilitarianism, which similarly emphasizes happiness but conceives of it differently.)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Examples

As for eudaemonism, sure, I follow Professor Long on this point although, my conception of virtue is colored by my reading Augustine, the theurgic neoplatonists, and the “Blue Socialist” tradition of William Cobbett and John Ruskin.

Whether it be hedonism, pessimism, utilitarianism, or eudaemonism, all those modes of thinking which measure the worth of things according to PLEASURE and PAIN, that is, according to accompanying circumstances and secondary considerations, are plausible modes of thought and naivetes, which every one conscious of CREATIVE powers and an artist's conscience will look down upon with scorn, though not without sympathy.

If this distinction is not observed; if eudaemonism (the principle of happiness) is adopted as the principle instead of eleutheronomy (the principle of freedom of the inner legislation), the consequence is the euthanasia (quiet death) of all morality.